COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley knows the pressure is building after loss to Adelaide dumped the Pies out of the top eight.

The 16-point defeat was Collingwood’s fifth loss in six games, leaving Buckley to explain a season that lurches from bad to worse.

The Crows defeat capped the worst six-week stretch for the Magpies since 2005 - the last time they failed to reach the finals.

“The industry we’re in you’re going to get picked apart and questions are going to be asked and so they should be,” Buckley said.

“Questions on why you’re going well? Questions on why you’re going poorly? Questions on where do you go from here?”

Star midfielder Steele Sidebottom admitted the players had treated the Adelaide game “like a final”, with the Crows’ win ensuring they replaced Collingwood in the last finals spot.

Buckley acknowledged the heat was set to be turned up on the Magpies, but insisted his side was back to playing good footy despite the criticism.

“I can say to you that I don’t think it’s fair, I don’t think it’s balanced, but that’s irrelevant,” he said.

Nathan Buckley talks to Brent Macaffer.Source:Getty Images

“All we can ever put our focus into is the things we can impact on and I thought, for the most part, the players did that today. If we bring that energy and effort I think the supporters of the club, the players, the coaches and staff and anybody involved with the club are going to be far more satisfied than if we give them the effort that we gave them against Essendon.

“For two games this year we’ve been really poor, but for the most part this group is prepared to put the work in and they’re prepared to improve and give their best and we’ll continue to go forward from that.

“We’ve played some good footy, we’ve played some poor footy. Today was closer to the good footy we’ve been able to play, but we didn’t get the result.”

Collingwood edged Adelaide in the contested ball count and won clearances and inside 50s, but was again undone by sloppy execution inside 50m that saw them waste a glut of opportunities.

“We focused on contests and pressure. Statistically if you win both of those you win nine out of 10 games and this was one that fell into that one out of 10,” Buckley said.

“More often than not when the ball went forward we were able to bring it to ground and we hunted well, but just couldn’t execute and couldn’t finish off well enough. To win the inside 50s and then not be able to take our chances is what hurt us.”

Buckley said Travis Cloke (16 disposals, seven marks and 3.1) was given a raw deal from the umpires.

“He didn’t get any help from the umps at all, but he’s a big unit and he’s got to keep going to attack the ball in the air and it will be more obvious when the defenders have got a handful of his jumper,” he said.

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